1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to heavy metal adsorbing agent, and more particularly to an agent for adsorbing heavy metals contained in industrial waste so that soil, ground water, rivers, etc. can be prevented from being contaminated by the heavy metals.
2. Prior Art
Today's industrial and technological development causes several problems. One of them is heavy metal pollution derived from industrial waste.
Presently, the amount of industrial waste has significantly increased, and the disposition of industrial waste is one of the most vital issues in the industry. There are several ways to dispose of the industrial waste. One is to bury the waste in the soil and the other is to burn the waste into ash and dump the ash in remote mountains or disposition factories.
However, industrial waste can contain a great amount of heavy metal which can be easily dissolved in water. In this regard, rain contributes to the heavy metals dissolving, and undergound water is thus easily contaminated by the dissolved heavy metals. The underground water flows out with rain and as a result causes industrial pollution in rivers, etc.
One measure presently taken to solve the problem is to remove the contaminated soil and replace it with clean soil. However, the removed soil is still regarded as industrial waste since it contains heavy metals. Thus, the removed soil causes another problem: it is hard to find a place to dispose of it, and the disposal of the contaminated soil is very costly.
An attempt has been made to use zeolite as a heavy metal adsorbing agent so that replacement of contaminated soil with clean soil will no longer be necessary. However, zeolite does not have a high adsorption ratio against the heavy metal ions; therefore, the use of zeolite is not an effective way to prevent heavy metal pollution.